Garnering attention for Elive - HOW?

but will attract more people, everything starts from the website (and the distro experience of course, but the website is the welcome, the presentation, the statement), if people comes to "see elive" and found that is shit (because the website is shit, i mean), they will not download it / not talk about it / not make reviews / not value it / etc

Also, we need to think in strategic ways: "how people knows about elive?", answers:

  • people talking about it
  • organic search (accidentally found on google)
  • having references in other websites (magazines, reviewers, distros websites, wikipedia, softpedia, many etc...)

the first one requires active people doing it (or just, a good amount of users, in any case, we don't have these), the second one can be done from a better website (with good defined seo keywords etc), and will make more people discover / found / use elive directly without (not much) more effort in the future. The third one can be done with some research & work, but it requires the second one to present things in a good way

by other side we have a good bonus on our sides that we should not forget, most of linux websites sucks (bad presentation, sometimes not even screenshots page, they don't say anything, etc), so its easy to make a difference from the website

NONONONO, it is useless to contact these people if you've got nothing news-worthy to offer.

You are turning the world upside down.

No new release .... no joy.

Bollocks, without E16 you'd have nothing at all except memories of how good E17 was. You're getting old, mate.

Forget the frigging website .... it's taking too much energy with no result whatsoever. If there's no public release it'll al be for nothing.

A distro is not a distro if it doesn't release it's own special version.

No it wont! You need mentions all over the place to attract viewers ...... just good quality (if at all) doesn't attract views.

You need a public release for that.

Yep about 100-300

You need a public release for that.

i didn't meant to contact them now with nothing, but "to have them ready" for the future things to announce (otherwise, will be an announcement without much receivers/impact)

this is true

no, that has been a big issue for years, making amazing things that nobody see because is not described / presented anywhere, I have seen many features in the past that never have found ever (in other words, people thinking that "elive is just debian with enlighetnment"), there's many distros that are -just- that, elive is not, and if is not able to show itself to the world that is not just a "rebranded distro with a different wallpaper" is worth nothing

exactly, but times has changed, and people is everyday more lazy (download a distro + record in a usb + reboot my comptuer??? too much work, forget it), people don't make much effort anymore (they are not even able to report that the download is not working on the website, or any other important bug), before to offer a good product is needed to show "why is nice" this product

we have public releases all the time, and costfree too, i insist that the website needs to show better why elive is best than other distros first, and -then- make a public release (then when people speaks about it, will found a website saying that elive is best than any other distro, if they found a crappy website, 90% will leave without even downloading)

Well they're not downloading now, either and you just concluded that 90% of the linux sites were crappy. Sound contradictory to me. :thinking:

No, they're not .... now you're trying to put the blame on people who don't download. :man_facepalming:
It's you that's not changing, expecting some sort of rerun of the 2005 situation....not going to happen: The distrosphere has indeed changed and the memory of Elive Stable is fading fast.

I've had quite a few reactions on my minimal E16 iso and most tried it on older hardware and mentioned how amazingly well and responsive it worked on their old stuff they'd already given up on. I'm thinking of building a pre-installed (fully functional this time) version, this weekend and putting it up here (and more places but the Elive Web page would be better): VirtualBox Images
and here Images | VirtualBoxes - Free VirtualBox® Images

Same as with WP: You are only thinking of plugging Elive.
Put yourself in other peoples shoes and try to imagine what they want or need.

  • Anyway, what would you want to announce? Could you elaborate on that?
    This is important, please do elaborate!

ATM it doesn't even have enlightenment, at least NOT if you don't want use E16.
A well configured E16 is the best PR for things to come not stupidly repeating: We at Elive advise using Elive.
On a side note:

Why do you even ask other peoples opinions if you just keep on ventilating your same old stances? You clearly only skim our posts thus failing to see (or remember) what we're trying to say to you, no matter what the subject. :frowning_face:

The only way for a linux distro to get attention is to Release .... or get bought by Microsoft. :shocked:

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its statistical, i have seen the "interest in linux" for almost 20 years, before was more like a fashion, and before people were much more interested in invest time on things (anything), but that second thing is not something related to linux but something that happened in the last years in everything related to internet, now the most valuable resource is attention (and thus, time), facebook trades this resource which has more value than petrol, also, in google trends you can see that "linux" has been 4 times more searched on internet years ago than in the recent times (so, 4 times less interest on linux globally, which also matches pretty similar with the 300-400 visits per day VS 100-120)

this weekend and putting it up here (and more places...

that's what is needed :slight_smile: to have it listed on everywhere talking about linux

the next thing to announce is the EliveRetro version, there's no work on new E24 to announce anything with that (and not a newer version of debian too, but to have it will mean a good amount of work and adaptation too)

yeah, elive versions happened around once per month / 2 months, but I was too busy with the emails issue and when release I was not even able to send the newsletters correctly (without the risk to be blacklisted in even more email services like hotmail which totally banned elive ips since months)

Moved here and not to an existing thread because all the others are in private categories. IMO right now we need others' opinions.

So we need to adapt ..... they wont change in short notice.

Duly noted, I'm glad we agree there ....so let's get to work (see points down below) before Buster is antiquated too.

I know .... but there's nothing news-worthy or visually changed about them, as I've already stated.
They are in fact only "work in progress" with minor changes, bug fixes and security upgrades.

  • Nothing really interesting to show off for or talk about.

Hence my hammering at getting out a frozen special release.

Considering we're using E16 we won't be in a position to make a rumpus about, say a different desktop version (yet) but we could bring out a pre-configured specially themed with ditto desktop layout version, hence me pushing "Retro Minimal" all the time.

We just release something like that and create a rumpus about giving older hardware (especially laptops) a new lease of life or simply being the fastest full fledged DE currently in the world, etc.

We'll call it a "milestone" release, offer it up for free and leave it in the state it is i.e only Beta gets newer versions (well, one could always apug Retro) and asks for a donation.

To do that we need to:

  1. Create and fine tune such a release.
  • i.e theme, background, general layout, remove cruft like "flowblade" and be daring and add "tint2" and certainly "rofi" .... we need to differentiate!
  • this alone would call for a thread of it's own.
  1. Keep on honing the website and add an extra page for Retro (or Milestone releases in general)

  2. Make a list of actions we can take to garner attention (who does what, when,where) ... here we need to do more than the usual because (like with the WP entry) we have lost momentum already.

If we do decide to do this: Then we definitely will need something like "Asana" to keep an overview....and get more volunteers, the 3 of us are not enough!

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yeah, that's a good thing for "promoting" but is a delicated thing, so we expect designs to be the best as possible, so when a design is improved, to change it to a "new random one" just to look different is a bad step (bad for elive, good for promotion)

maybe we need a new thread on Suggest about things that could good to implement & promote

that looks good, is an app launcher, right? Kupfer is nice but is a bit bloated (requires imho too much RAM for what it is), so a good replacement is welcome

note that a window manager (e16, or 24) includes its own features like window-switcher which is a good thing and the correct way to go (not only about integration but especially because it doesn't require more resources to add that fucntionality, its all packed up), so by adding a launcher (kupfer) that adds a few mb to the requiriements of using the desktop, same for the dock functionalities

the download page for EliveRetro you mean I assume? yeah, I have good ideas for that future page :happy: (like a very different design very retrowave-geeky looking, that should mark well the difference!) :applause:

I think the best is to start by defined steps, for example:

  • the actual beta versions are pretty ready (as base) for being used on that version, so we can start from that and adding more "special thingies"
  • so next is to brainstorm what things could make that version "an amazing experience" (I repeat: experience, that has the biggest impact & attraction)
  • brainstorm strategic ideas to "tell it to the world" (how to make all linux users of the world hear about it?)
  • publish & party time :partying_face:

note: I still working hard on the emails issue, we need the database cleaned up before to do any release announcement, yikies

Yeah, a free as in beer "frozen in time" release as base with a special theme or a dedication: Extra lightweight, office version, multimedia (video/audio/graphic-design) and/or home-server version.

ABSOLUTELY
So we have to make the experience widely known and easily available.

We also have to show off that Elive is very much more than just Debian with Enlightenment slapped on....hence my insistence on a dedicated GUI for settings and conf tools, prominently placed on the dock.

Yes but those are people that already know about Elive, obviously. We need new blood. :vampire:

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that's a good summary of 2 points: "an experience that makes impact" and "easily available / promoted / shared"

oh, good point for the configurator thinking on this point :thinking: , and yes, I also wanted to show / tell that, in fact there's a specific block in the homepage which says exactly "not just debian with enlightenment" lol

BTW, as the title of this thread, "garnering attention for Elive", I just wrote on twitter after years lol -->

https://twitter.com/elive_linux/status/1425708712233209859

I assume adding those @magazines can help :thinking: and a nice image of course :happy: :applause:

LOL, that screenshot by itself is totally retro already :w00t:

BTW,
In that configuration that you're showing, the lower pager will be blocked by cairo-dock's reserved space.

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good point, retrogames :slight_smile: and screenshots showing that too!

yep, that's just an old screenshot (before to found that bug), but is not important for the screenshot (nobody knows), see the conky, september 2019 lol

BTW everybody is welcome to @tag a trillion of magazines in the twitter thread :happy:

also, I just configured a better sending of the newsletters: in the first hours, sent to a bunch of magazines that I had in the subscribers list (70, more exactly), then a few hours later, everybody else in the list (so the sending is first sent to a prior list and then to everybody else) more emails of magazines are welcome if you know some to add lol

I think you need to rethink what an inviting screenshot looks like.

The one there wants to show off too much at once, it's a geek's screenshot.

Keep it open/empty. You want to give an impression of boundlessness, unrestricted space and beauty together with a promise of a sleek computing experience.

  • So at the least use a widescreen (16:9) shot. :idea:

Elementary did that very cleverly in their shot..... albeit a very Apple like choice of background, thus not very creative but admittedly, it works.

Got that list accessible so we can compare/check?

Like, have you got 9to5linux.com in there somewhere?

Also: On twitter see that you follow all those magazines individually.

Don't ever do that if you want announce something new ..... at the very least a different recognizable background for each announcement.
That way anyone who's seen it before can see at a glance: "Ah, the new Elive".

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I should probably drop into this.
For one, the website looks a bit "unnatural" - some offsets are broken and stuff, emoticons out of place, etc. The first point should be that the website while having a modern-ish look should more comply to what Elive is - a celebration of UIs of early 2010s - something that screams that brushed beauty of Enlightenment and flex of Compiz.
Second, the donation system is probably what's keeping people away. Waiting? Paying? Sounds like another one of "those" sites and "those" distros. So instead, why not make it like elementary does it? A pay-what-you-want system, but it allows to enter a 0$ and bypass it. Simple, yet efficient.

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@Thanatermesis I'm sorry for tagging, but I'd use the time until DT's video blows up and gets a megaton of people curious about Elive.

I'm curious as to what you mean by that ....... could you be more expletive?

I certainly don't know how YT's algorithm works, but I'd bet that now's the perfect time for it to start to get recommended to everyone. Hell, I'm here because it got recommended to me.

Ahh yes, that one -- I understand now.
I thought it was something new I hadn't heard about yet.

We definitely need more of those reviews .... Hopefully Elive-Retro will create a few waves, once it's out.

You see it isn't about the website, albeit your comments there definitely ring true, but first and foremost to get people to visit it or even know about Elive.